Federal agents arrest four alleged members of Juárez drug cartel in West Texas

Federal agents arrested four people allegedly belonging to the Juárez drug cartel in small cities in West Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said recently.

The arrests in Odessa and Marfa last month are part of an ongoing multi-agency case by ICE Homeland Security Investigations into the Juárez drug cartel.

All of those arrested are related by marriage and include the 19-year-old daughter of a suspected cartel leader living in Ojinaga, Mexico, across the border from Presidio, Texas.

ICE officials said Crystal Romero and her husband Gerardo Olivas, who is also 19, were arrested after $40,000 was found in their vehicle by a Presidio County sheriff's deputies during an Oct. 26 traffic stop for speeding and not having a front license plate in Marfa.

According to a complaint affidavit by a federal agent, deputies got permission to search the vehicle and found $30,000 in Romero's purse and another $10,000 underneath french fries and wrappers inside a Dairy Queen bag.

The document stated that Olivas refused to answer questions and claimed he was responsible for everything in the vehicle and his wife had nothing to do with anything.

When HSI agents questioned Romero in jail, she allegedly told agents that she knew her husband "was involved in narcotics trafficking and that she was transporting the proceeds back to Mexico" and she said that "the money was supposed to be given to her father," according to the affidavit.

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ICE officials said Romero's father is Victor Manuel Castillo Olivas, a reputed cartel leader sought by federal agents and indicted in May 2012 in U.S. District Court in Pecos on four counts of conspiring to distribute more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana in West Texas.

According to a federal affidavit, Gerardo Olivas made a recorded call from jail to his mother, Maribel Olivas Ontiveros, telling her that she needed to destroy everything in the house and that his wife had told agents everything.

Later that day, Odessa police got a warrant and searched the home of Olivas' parents in west Odessa. Police allegedly found 9.5 ounces of cocaine at the home of Maribel Olivas and her husband Gerardo Lopez Seanez, both 44.

On Oct. 28, Odessa police got another search warrant and found more than two pounds of heroin and 45 pounds of marijuana in a car where Lopez allegedly hid the drugs that had been in the home. The car was parked at a relative's home.: According to affidavits, Maribel Olivas told HSI agents that her husband and son were drug traffickers and that drugs had been stored in their garage.

Maribel Olivas and Lopez were both charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin and marijuana, officials said. Romero and Gerardo Olivas were both charged with money laundering.

Anyone with information on the location of Castillo may call HSI at 1-866-347-2423.